Regardless of her boring routine, I’m positive watching her will eventually bring me closer to solid evidence that she is up tosomething. I just don’t know what yet.
I watch the little green dot move away from Peak Salad Co. and back in the direction of Chloe’s house, right on track with her normal schedule. She doesn’t have to work, and as far as I know she never has, because her mom was a millionaire when she went to prison after she invested all the money she made from the trafficking ring she unearthed.
“We found Richard Soffett.” Alex’s hurried voice snaps my attention off the green dot representing Chloe. He’s buzzing past me to grab his jacket off the back of his chair, and his urgency pulls me out of my chair, as well. I follow him toward the elevator that will take us from the fourth floor to the ground level.
“Where?” I ask when we enter the elevator and he jabs his finger into the button marked L.
“Washed up at Devil’s Landing.” Fitting, since he was killed by the devil herself.
Devil’s Landing is about an hour drive from here. Would Richard have driven himself an hour away for a hike near Devil’s Landing? Is that normal? I wouldn’t know, because I’ve never gone on a hike in my life and Ihave no idea how far people are willing to go to engage in their recreational activities.
On the drive to Devil’s Landing Recreational Area, I find myself more focused on the fact that I have zero concept of fun and adventure, more than I wonder about what Richard’s cause of death is going to be.
7
Chloe
Stone called to tell me that while he’d been hiking back from his favorite fishing spot at Hussey Ridge, he’d spotted a rotting deer carcass in the field. So naturally, I’m on my way to pick it up.
It’s not often you find yourself with a friend who sees a dead animal, and the first thing they think of is you—and in a thoughtful way, and not an I-wish-she-were-the-dead-animal kind of way.
Stone offered to bring it back for me, seeing as how he’s got a truck and probably the ability to lift it on his own, but I like to meet my animals where they’re at. See the environments they came from. The other animals in the area they shared their lives with. I just like tobe therewith them in the space they died in, so I can imagine what they went through and bring them back to life in more than just a beautiful way, but a realistic way as well.
Although, I probably should have at least asked Stone to stick around to help me lift it into the back of my Bug. I’m all about getting my hands dirty, but straddling a dead, rotting deer is just not something I have any interest in doing.
As my mother always used to say,pain is beauty.So I will accept the pain of getting deer guts on my crotch to have the chance at bringing this precious buck to peace.
Of course, taking my Bug to pick up such a large animal is not a logical nor practical option either, and I normally wouldn’t, but Stone warned against taking the Suburban out so close to the last time it was used to transport what’s-his-dick. So here we are.
Hussey Ridge is east of Devil’s Peak, so I take a left out of my neighborhood onto the highway that’ll eventually take me through the middle of town and out the other side.
When I’m stopped at a red light close to the edge of town, I glance down the side streets and see none other than Detective Colin Mills himself headed for his car in the parking lot behind the police department.
Many thoughts run through my head at the same time. First, I’m in love with this man, so if I see him walking around the streets of Devil’s Peak, I just cannot stop myself from heading in his direction. Second, while I have temporarily paused myotherextracurricular activities to lie low for a bit so I can focus on my mother’s appeal, I’d also like Colin to get to know the real me. And what better way to do that than inviting him on this trip to collect a rotting animal carcass and transport it back to my basement? And third, I can imagine I really will need help getting the deer into my car, so it’s like killing two birds with one stone.
Of course, I’d never actually do that. But you know. Theoretically.
I swerve my car in a ninety-degree angle, cutting across the turn lane and narrowly missing a minivan that was headed through their green light.
“Sorry!” I shout through the closed window as he lays on his horn and slams on his brakes to let me pass. The ruckus means Colin is already looking in my direction when I squeal to a stop at the curb outside the gated parking lot of the department.
I roll my window down and lean over the console to get a better look across the lot. “Hey! Are you busy right now?”
His stare is somehow both entirely void of emotion and full of surprise as he stands frozen in the parking lot, looking in my direction. “Am Ibusyright now?” he shouts back through the metal rungs of the gate.
“Yeah, I sort of need a favor.” He looks tired, and dumbfounded, and like maybe he thinks he’s dreaming as he starts in my direction with renewed determination, straightening his posture.
When he makes it over to my car, he leans his forearm against the window, his gaze glittering with curiosity as it skates across my outfit.
Coveralls are my go-to whether I’m hunting for an animal carcass or luring a loser to his death, and because I don’t want animal blood and guts in my beautiful, blonde hair, it’s tied up in a tight bun at the crown of my head.
“What’s the favor, Stark?” he finally asks.
“I’m going hunting. I’ll need help lifting the body.” I smile wide and wink at him, being intentionally crude with my words because I know he’s got a hard-on for proving I’m a criminal.
Besides, I’m not being dishonest, just a bit vague and misleading. All in the name of love.
He stares at me with a blank look on his face. “You realize I have handcuffs, right?”
